A science team has combined data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the Keck II telescope to see evidence of cloud convection on Saturn’s moon Titan in the northern hemisphere for the first time. Most of Titan’s lakes and seas are located in that hemisphere, and are likely replenished by an occasional rain of methane and ethane. Webb also has detected a key carbon-containing molecule that gives insight into the chemical processes in Titan’s complex atmosphere.
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The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured new details of the auroras on our Solar System’s largest planet. The dancing lights observed on Jupiter are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth. With Webb’s advanced sensitivity, astronomers have studied the phenomena to better understand Jupiter’s magnetosphere.
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have discovered evidence that suggests the presence of a long-sought supermassive black hole at the heart of the nearby spiral galaxy Messier 83 (M83). This surprising finding, made possible by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), reveals highly ionised neon gas that could be a telltale signature of an active galactic nucleus (AGN), a growing black hole at the center of a galaxy.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has taken the most detailed image of planetary nebula NGC 1514 to date thanks to its unique mid-infrared observations. Webb’s image brings out the nebula’s nuances, particularly its “fuzzy” dusty rings. Also look for holes in the central pink region where material has broken through.Two central stars, which appear as one in Webb’s image, formed this scene over thousands of years — and will keep at it for thousands more.
Using the unique infrared sensitivity of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, researchers can examine ancient galaxies to probe secrets of the early universe. Now, an international team of astronomers has identified bright hydrogen emission from a galaxy in an unexpectedly early time in the Universe’s history. The surprise finding is challenging researchers to explain how this light could have pierced the thick fog of neutral hydrogen that filled space at that time.
For the first time, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured bright auroral activity on Neptune. Auroras occur when energetic particles, often originating from the Sun, become trapped in a planet’s magnetic field and eventually strike the upper atmosphere. The energy released during these collisions creates the signature glow.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured a beautiful juxtaposition of the nearby protostellar outflow known as Herbig-Haro 49/50 with a perfectly positioned, more distant spiral galaxy. Due to the close proximity of this Herbig-Haro object to the Earth, this new composite infrared image of the outflow from a young star allows researchers to examine details on small spatial scales like never before. With Webb, we can better understand how the jet activity associated with the formation of young stars can affect their surrounding environment.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured direct images of multiple gas giant planets within an iconic planetary system. HR 8799, a young system 130 light-years away, has long been a key target for planet formation studies.
High-resolution near-infrared light captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows extraordinary new detail and structure in Lynds 483 (L483). Two actively forming stars are responsible for the shimmering ejections of gas and dust that gleam in orange, blue, and purple in this representative colour image.
An international team of researchers has discovered that previously observed variations in brightness across a free-floating planetary-mass object known as SIMP 0136 must be the result of a complex combination of atmospheric factors, and cannot be explained by clouds alone.
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have identified two stars responsible for generating carbon-rich dust a mere 5000 light-years away in our own Milky Way galaxy. As the massive stars in Wolf-Rayet 140 swing past one another on their elongated orbits, their winds collide and produce the carbon-rich dust. For a few months every eight years, the stars form a new shell of dust that expands outward — and may eventually go on to become part of stars that form elsewhere in our galaxy.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope just solved a conundrum by proving a controversial finding made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope more than 20 years ago.
For the first time, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has detected and ‘weighed’ a galaxy that not only existed around 600 million years after the Big Bang, but also has a mass that is similar to what our Milky Way galaxy’s mass might have been at the same stage of development. Other galaxies Webb has detected at this period in the history of the Universe are significantly more massive. Nicknamed the Firefly Sparkle, this galaxy is gleaming with star clusters — 10 in all — each of which researchers examined in great detail.
Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers have found new galaxies in the Spiderweb protocluster. Their characteristics shed light on the growth of galaxies in these large cosmic cities, with the finding that gravitational interactions in these dense regions are not as important as previously thought.
A new mid-infrared image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features the Sombrero galaxy, also known as Messier 104 (M104). The signature, glowing core seen in visible-light images does not shine, and instead a smooth inner disk is revealed. The sharp resolution of Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) also brings into focus details of the galaxy’s outer ring, providing insights into how the dust, an essential building block for astronomical objects in the Universe, is distributed. The galaxy’s outer ring shows intricate clumps in the infrared for the first time.
Stare deeply at these galaxies. They appear as if blood is pumping through the top of a flesh-free face. The long, ghastly ‘stare’ of their searing eye-like cores shines out into the supreme cosmic darkness.
An international team of astronomers has used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to detect the first rich population of brown dwarf candidates outside the Milky Way in the star cluster NGC 602.
Looking deep into the early universe with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have found something unprecedented: a galaxy with an odd light signature, which they attribute to its gas outshining its stars.
An interaction between an elliptical galaxy and a larger spiral galaxy, collectively known as Arp 107, seems to have given the spiral a happier outlook thanks to the two bright ‘eyes’ and the wide semicircular ‘smile’ that have resulted. This image is a composite, combining observations from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera).
Within the Milky Way’s outskirts is a firecracker show of star formation. The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has examined the fringes of our Milky Way galaxy and Webb’s near- and mid-infrared imaging capabilities have enabled scientists to examine a star-forming area reminiscent of our galaxy during its early stages of formation.
